Thursday, 28 April 2016

After all the 'earlier' performances by 'experienced' musicians let's listen to a fairly recent (2012) live recording by an upcoming artist, Fatoumata Diawara.

As I remember right, I first heard/saw her through a youtube video from the 2010 Afrikafestival in Hertme (can't find the one, but for your pleasure that whole performance is up on youtube now, see at bottom of post).
Anyway I was very impressed, so followed her musical adventures and collected several of her live recordings. When archiving, I immediattelly knew this is the one to enjoy in the 'Pays de Mangues'.

About Fatoumata Diawara there's a lot of info to find, if she's new to you best start here or here, and if you're curious dig further through given links there.

Further info about this recording:

2013.Jan.05, WFMU Transpacific Sound Paradise:
Fatoumata Diawara is an engaging young West African actress turned singer who performs original songs blending Wassalou traditions of Southern Mali with international influences. Her debut Fatou was recently released by Nonesuch / World Circuit.
She's one of the dozen artists selected to play the prestigious annual globalFEST world music showcase at Webster Hall on Sunday 2013.Jan.13 (watch here). You'll understand why she made the cut when you hear tonight's broadcast of her triumphant New York Debut 2012 September 28 at Schimmel Center, Pace University, New York.

2012.Oct.02, schimmelblog (incl.a photo gallery of the show)
Fatoumata Diawara graced the Schimmel Center stage this past Friday, 2012 September 28, and blew away all expectations with her wondrous set. Even getting the ever-cynical New York City crowd to get up and dance, Diawara’s 90 minute set included many songs from her US debut, Fatou. Her talent seemed effortless and the band she led never faltered, making for a majestic night of music for those in attendance.

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Just reached me the news, that after Prince, another great musician has left our world, Papa Wemba collapsed on stage during a performance this weekend in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Further infos can be found here:

Monday, 25 April 2016

Got this idea about making a post of manguetic music played by John Peel in his radio shows. Today 11,5 years have passed since his sudden death 2004.Oct.25 on holiday in Peru, and as I missed all previous John Peel Days (Oct.25), today feels an appropiate date to publish this post.

John Peel pictured preparing for a radio show

In the early 2000s I found out that, where I lived then, I could listen to the BBC World Service broadcasted on FM radio. There were 2 shows I tried not to miss: Charlie Gillett and John Peel, both shows were only half an hour long. But in that short time they played a lot of very good music and gave also very good information about what they played. As all was officially released music, no sessions or special recordings, I didn't tape any of those. After John Peel's death, the BBC used his time slot for summaries of radio specials like WM Awards and Andy Kershaw documentaries, of which some I did tape to K7.
A few years later, when radio started to be streamed in decent quality on the internet, the World Service FM broadcasting was stopped by the BBC, and collecting special music transformed from K7 taping to catching internet streams.

A group of people operates the wonderful John Peel Wiki, where info, tracklists and audio is collected from many of his radio shows, sessions and other related media appearances. He had several African artists recorded for his famous radio sessions, and going through tracklists of his shows I noticed that in every hour of his shows he played at least one non-western track, selected based on the only valid criterium: his own taste!
That gave me the idea to make a tribute post with manguetic music played in his shows, put the tracks together, chronologically labelled and audio including his announcements and music related talk in between. So it can be played like a radio show called "John Peel's World of Music" (nr.1, so more can follow in the future......). The selected music comes from all over the world - UK, Nigeria, Congo, India, Pakistan, Mali, Guinee, Hungary, Colombia, etc. - with an emphasis on areas where mango's are growing and really fresh can be eaten!!

Saturday, 23 April 2016

After all the concerts in Holland let's cross the sea and listen to Bembeya Jazz from Guinee in two concerts of their 2002/03 return tour in the UK. Both recorded by the BBC and broadcasted on their Radio 3, I don't have full concerts, only catched some tracks, some even doubled, from their radio streams, so may be it's not all that has been boadcasted...... (anybody who has more, please don't hesitate to comment/contact).

About Bembeya Jazz there is a lot of info available, but when I was in Guinee (1993/94), they were considered an "old band" and in Conakry nothing to find from them in the music shops. So when I went into the country side (Mamou, Labe and Faranah) a friend, who stayed in Conakry, asked me to look out there for Bembeya K7s. I only found two copies and, as I was not familiar with Bembeya at that time, gave tiose to him when returned to Conakry. Unfortunately didn't make copies for myself then, and don't remember what I have found then.
Luckily for us Bembeya Jazz made in the early 2000s a great comeback, album and tour, and later early recordings where compiled on a fantastic 2CD called "The Syliphone Years".

Saturday, 16 April 2016

In the comments to the previous post with Senegalese music, I asked Falilou Ndiaye if he may be had some live reccordings from Thione Seck. Despite his enormous collection of Senegalese K7s uploaded to youtube, he didn't, so I diggedin my archive and can present you the only one I have, a fairly recent live recording of Thione Seck at the (again) Music Meeting Festival in 2011. Here's the background info I could find:

Thione Seck - Orientation Concert:

Thione Seck at Music Meeting 2011

source: musicmeeting.nl/2011/thione-seck-orientation.html (google translation)
In collaboration with the Holland Festival the Music Meeting presents for the first time in Europe the splendid repertoire of Orientation, with in a starring role the master singer Thione Seck.
Thione Seck Ballago is one of Senegal's greatest singers and musicians in the mbalax genre, along with Baaba Maal, Omar Pene and Youssou N'Dour, although he has not achieved the same success outside of Senegal as in his own country. Seck hails from a griot family. His career began in the seventies with the internationally renowned Afro-Latin orchestra Orchestre Baobab. He then formed his own band Raam Daan, which up until now weekly performs under the artistic direction of Seck in Penc Mi, Seck's nightclub in Dakar.
The mbalax of Thione Seck has it's own sound, and is distinguished mainly by the rapid pulse of the sabar drums. Secks unique phrasing and extremely powerful phrasing are instantly recognizable among Senegalese, he is also highly regarded for his layered lyrics. In recent years he was inspired by Indian and Arabic influences, for which his album Orientiation* is a clear and very inventive example. This album was created in close artistic collaboration with more than forty North African, Arabian and Indian musicians, who know how to create a glowing fusion of their different musical traditions. Seck said that the soundtracks of Bollywood movies were a major influence on his inspiration for this album.*my note: Orientiation first issued in 2003 on local K7, and in 2005 internationally on CD (see discography)

Tuesday, 12 April 2016

Was away to a very inspiring exhibition about the painter Jheronimus Bosch (ca.1450-1516) in the small Dutch city called Den Bosch (or also s'Hertogenbosch), located along the railwayline between Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Even there I found a (small) reference to expierences in the African continent (will post about that later, when found relating music). Tried to complete this post before leaving last week, but well didn't find the time.

So now something completely different: Les Negresses Vertes, live and acoustic recordings from 1989, exact place and time unknown, I got it in the mid 1990s on K7 and still like it very much. Wondering what is the relation the the other music I've posted, here's the story:

During my trip to Guinee in 1993/94 I couldn't get a song from Les Negresses Vertes out of my head: 'Voila l'Ete', and was humming and singing it a lot of times. In Guinee I stayed in the house of a Guinean family, the children of the family liked my humming and when I told them the name of the group (meaning "The Green Negresses"), they went absolutely bonkers. They seemed to like the tune also a lot, as they requested it a lot of times: "Mangue, encore les Vertes!". I didn't have the music itself with me, so could only produce the refrain 'Voila l'Ete / Toujours l'Ete / etc.' and the melody. Promised them that when I would be back home, I send them a copy of the music. Kept my promise and together with it I send them also a copy of the first album of Oumou Sangare, which, as I had found out during my stay in Conakry, was completely unknown to them.
To my surprise, but also happiness, they send me back a return gift: a box with 6 pieces fresh and delicious mangos (actually send by mail using stamps about Olympic Wintersports!!). The most delicious mangos I've ever eaten outside of Africa!!

Now to 'Les Négresses Vertes' (adapted from wiki):
Les Négresses Vertes arose in 1987 from the alternative-music scene in Paris. The original line-up included singer Helno (1963.Dec.25 - 1993.Jan.22) (vocals), Jo Roz (piano), Stéfane Mellino (guitar), Jean-Marie Paulus (bass), Gaby (drums), Matthias Canavese (accordion), Michel Ochowiak (trumpet), Abraham Sirinix (trombone) and Iza Mellino (backing vocals).
The original members were a group of friends, many of whom had not played their instruments before forming the band. The group's name translates as green negresses; it arose from abuse hurled at the members at one of the group's first concerts. The insult is a comparison to the kitsch art of Vladimir Tretchikoff. The group was initially signed to the independent Off the Track label and released the punk protest song "200 Ans D'Hypocrisie" in response to its home country's French Revolution bicentennial celebrations.
Their music is best described as a fusion of world music and some aspects of alternative rock, tracks often feature acoustic guitar and accordion, as well as some tracks containing many other traditional instruments such as piano and brass. The group's style is fairly upbeat and energetic on the majority of its tracks, with unusual rhythms, vocals delivered with a generous dose of zeal and vibrant energy, and accompaniment melodies ranging from lilting and distant to eccentric and fast-paced. These two factors give many of the group's pieces a strong sense of direction.
In 1989, they released their debutalbum, MLAH, to good reviews in both France and the UK, where the single "Zobi La Mouche" just failed to reach the charts and where it toured and played the WOMAD festival. The group also made a controversial tour of Lebanon. By the time of the 2nd album Helno was struggling with serious heroin addiction, and Stéfane Mellino and Canavese replaced him as the main songwriters.
Helno died at his parents' house on 1993.Jan.22, after that happened several members left the band, but Les Négresses Vertes continued around the nucleus of Mellino, Canavese, Ochowiak, and Paulus. By 2000's Trabendo, the group's style had shifted to a dub-oriented lounge style.

Sunday, 3 April 2016

In the mid 1990s together with the Africa Soli K7 (previous post), I got a K7 with 1985/86 concerts from Youssou N'dour broadcasted on Dutch radio. There was no info about when nor where these concerts were recorded, and only a few titles of songs were given.

So dived again in the Dutch beeldengeluid archive, which brought only one hit for "Youssou 1985-1986" forward:
Backline - Youssou N'Dour / 1986.Jul.23, VPRO / medium - radio

I labelled the tracks according the dates, but as the last tracks from 1985 are from the encore and the 1986 are a little mellower, I can imagine the 1986 tracks put in front or in between the 1985 tracks to get a more real complete concert feeling. Well that's upto you, whatever you like best!!

More 1980s live recordings from Youssou N'dour et le Super Etoile de Dakar:

1982 concert in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (issued 1983 on LP as 'Show!!! a Abidjan') posted by aduna at his old blog, download link still OK

NEVER EVER FORGET: Pap Djah's last words before left on his own in the Sahara desert (in Niger)

About Me

This blog is made out of love for the music here presented in softcopy, if you like something, best support the music and artists by trying to buy a hardcopy yourself and visiting their concerts.

On this blog will be presented: original K7s with music from all over the world, radio broadcasts of live concerts (from K7 recordings and/or radio streams), all sorts of other musical items.Note: selections based on personal manguetic taste.

MY WISH LIST:music I know exist, never have heard, but love to have listened to at least once*Doura Barry - Laureat de Guinea (K7)*Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - early K7s*1980s live recs Super Biton*1980s/90s live recs Bembeya Jazz*1990s live recs Oumou Sangare*1980-85 live recs King Sunny Ade*1979-86 live recs Amazones de Guinee*recs Andy Kershaw BBC Sessions*recs BBC World Music Awards*Tinariwen - early K7s (1992/93)(will be continuous updated)